Saltwater
by Le Diable
Summary: Lee runs into Gaara in a hospital, literally. AU modern day fic, some dark elements. Multi-ship.


**This was originally meant to be a one-shot but it was getting far too long. So it'll be a few chapters long. It's mostly a friendship fic but it has some romantic elements to it. I'd say it's definitely a love story. Make of that what you will.**

 **It is AU as well. No ninja powers, set in present day Tokyo.**

 **I love getting reviews, they boost my confidence to write more. If you like the fic or think something could be amended, please let me know.**

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 **Chapter One**

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The baby was fat – immensely so, for something that had only been alive for a couple of hours. His face was a brilliant pink, his eyes bright blue, his little cowlick of hair too dark to be his mother's shade of blond. Chubby little hands with perfect little nails were curled up on his chest as he slept.

Rock Lee hadn't seen a lot of babies in his lifetime, but he was beyond certain that this one was the cutest.

"It's a boy," said Ino.

It was a statement of the obvious. The whole room was bedecked with blue balloons, blue banners, big bunches of flowers wrapped in blue ribbons, assorted teddy bears wearing blue shirts, and the words ' _It's a boy!'_ emblazoned on everything. The room was so blue the ward might've been floating up high on a cloud.

Ino had been admitted to hospital on Tuesday night. They had all rushed up right away with their baby merchandise only to find Chouji watching telly in a communal sitting area, a bag of crisps on his lap. He had waved them off and told them that it looked like it might be a while. And so it had. Ino endured over fifty hours of labour to bring her fat little child into the world. No wonder she looked so exhausted. It was Friday by the time the hospital staff had permitted them to visit her. She had barely been able to keep her eyes open as they all tiptoed into the room and crowded round the bed, eyes eagerly fixed on the little blue sausage in the cot beside her.

Babies didn't do very much, thought Lee, an hour later. It hadn't even twitched a muscle. Ino yawned for what must've been the fortieth time. He couldn't understand why she wanted them all hanging around her when was clearly sleep-deprived.

"Do you have a name for him yet?"

"Monster," she croaked. "Demon. Satan. Beelzebub. Anything that brings to mind pain and suffering."

Lee remembered the biology lesson from school where they had watched a video of a woman in labour. For him it had definitely been an unpleasant viewing experience, but one kid had actually fainted and fallen out of his seat. Kurenai had sent him to the nurse's office with the air of having to put up with this sort of nonsense all the time. "There's one every year," she had said, resuming the video. Lee prayed he wasn't going to be the first kid to vomit. Afterwards, all the girls had declared they were never having children. "I'd rather die single surrounded by my fifty cats," Tenten had said, as they headed to their next class.

Tenten was here now, looking at Ino with sympathy. During school, they had all somehow fallen into a crowd together, despite Tenten, Lee and Neji being a year older. They sat at lunch together, hung out on weekends together, showed up to support each other during competitions.

A few however were not present at the bedside. Nara Shikamaru for one, but he had always been a bit lackadaisical with punctuality so presumably he'd show up a little later. Lee had met his stoic friend Hyuuga Neji for lunch and invited him up but as usual, he had given his blunt refusal. God knows where Uzumaki Naruto had vanished off to this time. The most profound absence, however, was that of the father.

Haruno Sakura was laughing. "Ino, that's bull. How many birthing videos did we watch to prepare you for this?"

"Those birthing videos were doss," spat Ino. "They didn't prepare me for _shit_."

Those closest to her took a couple of steps back but Sakura remained at her side, smiling. The others had learned early on that their friendship seemed to thrive off this sort of back and forth barbing.

"Oh _really_? Well, now you know how Chouji's mother felt. She told me Chouji was fifteen pounds, one of the heaviest babies ever born in Jap–"

"Who cares about Chouji's mother?" Ino shrieked, making them all jump. Lee looked worriedly at the baby but it slept on, deaf to the raucous. "She's a fat lump, having a fat baby was part and parcel for her! Look at me! My baby was thirteen pounds! _I HAD TO PUSH THIRTEEN POUNDS OF HUMAN FLESH THROUGH MY TINY SIZE EIGHT–!"_

"Where _is_ Chouji?" Tenten quickly interrupted. "You look like you could use some rest, Ino."

Ino looked at her and she recoiled. "Where do you _think_ he is?"

"Uh, maybe–"

" _HE'S IN THE FUCKING CANTEEN OF COURSE, STUFFING HIS BIG FAT FACE!_ "

On further recollection, Lee remembered hearing that Chouji had been the year below's birthing video fainter. No wonder he wasn't present. Tenten tried to force a laugh but it came out a high-pitched squeal of terror.

"Typical Chouji! Lee, why don't we go and fetch him so Ino can take a break?"

He wasn't given the opportunity to answer. Tenten grabbed his elbow and he was unceremoniously dragged from the room. Once they were in the hallway, she wrung out her hands anxiously and hopped from one foot to the other, looking more mouse-like than ever with her hair up in her trademark buns.

"I am _never_ having kids," she whispered.

"Just don't have them with Chouji," he said.

The maternity ward was bright and bustling. A woman was wheeled past with two tiny identical babies in her arms. A group of well-wishers with balloons and cards were piled up in the communal sitting area. A man was getting a paper cup of coffee from a vending machine while his small daughter played with a giant stuffed tiger at his feet. Every adult had at least ten years on Tenten and Lee. It made him feel stupidly out of place.

Jaws had smashed on the floor when, after graduation, Yamanaka Ino finally agreed to go on a date with Akimichi Chouji. Jaws had smashed on the floor again when she agreed to a second date. Lee was sure someone somewhere had had a heart attack when the news of Ino's pregnancy broke three months later – probably her father. Who would've expected it? Ino was athletic, stylish, and dazzlingly pretty. She used to pick on Chouji when they were younger. And now they had brought their own child into the world together.

Life was funny sometimes. It gave Lee hope anyway. He had been bullied by loads of pretty girls at school. Some day now, one of them would see his bushy brows and his clumpy eyelashes and realise they had confused disgust with desire. Some day now...

"OK," grumbled Tenten. "Where's the canteen? This hospital is huge."

"There's the sign there," said Lee, pointing.

The canteen was just as busy as the rest of the ward but Chouji, with his fluffy ginger hair and er, rather sizeable build, was nowhere to be seen.

"He must be in the bathroom or something," said Lee. "Suppose we could – hey, what are you doing?" Tenten had picked up a tray and joined the queue for the hot food. She shot him an apologetic look.

"Come on, Lee, I'm starving! If Chouji's in the bathroom, he will come back here, won't he?" Her stomach grumbled loudly. "Oh, they have pasta bake!"

He sighed, but relented and joined her in the queue. She offered him a tray but he waved it away.

"I had lunch before I got here."

"You met up with Neji, didn't you?"

Lee froze, mid-wave. Tenten had always had this strange gift of being able to read him like a book. It was very hard to keep secrets from her. She raised a slim eyebrow. "How's married life treating him?"

"Em..." Lee was torn between lying, or telling the truth and potentially hurting her feelings. He considered himself quite a brave person – not many men can wear orange legwarmers, you know – but when it came to his friends... Truth wasn't always the best policy if he wanted to avoid tears or screaming.

"Uh, I don't know. He doesn't like talking about it. You know how he is."

"Ah," she said.

Lee visibly relaxed. Taking the middle ground worked! It wasn't really a lie. Neji _didn't_ like talking about it, but Lee had a hunch he knew how his old school friend was faring in his marriage. Neji was a cold and frigid person, but Lee had seen him smiling more these last few months than he had ever seen him smile in their years as class mates. More than when he had been dating Tenten.

"Don't think about it," he told her. "I thought you had a date the other week?"

"Yeah, but he was a weirdo," she said, shovelling a massive spoonful of pasta bake stuffed with beans and sausage onto her plate. Then she took a second. Then a third. "Most men seem to think I'll open my legs if they buy me one drink. Maybe I should try dating women instead."

Lee dropped the bottle of water he was holding and quickly scrambled to pick it up. The people in the queue in behind them were staring. She was talking very loud.

"Maybe we should talk about this later." Thankfully, they had reached the cashier. As she tallied up their total he glanced back over the canteen but Chouji still hadn't shown up.

"Excuse me," he asked the cashier. "By any chance did you serve a young man earlier – ginger hair and uh, quite, um, quite large?"

The cashier blinked. "I think so. There was a boy like that – around eighteen years old?" Lee nodded. "Yes, he didn't buy anything though. He didn't like our selection so he went to the main canteen at the hospital entrance."

Tenten laughed. "Oh, Chouji..."

Lee sighed. "I suppose I'll go get him." He handed over the money for the meal and said to Tenten, "You stay here and eat your lunch, I'll be back soon."

It would turn out to be far less sooner than he expected. It was a twenty minute walk from one side of the hospital to the other and it was signposted in a way that almost guaranteed you getting lost. There seemed to be a canteen for every department, none of which was labelled 'Main Canteen'.

He turned up in the entrance lobby and looked at the abysmal newsagents near the door, which only sold pre-packaged sandwiches, a selection of sweets and crisps, and cigarettes.

"Pardon me," he touched a passing orderly on the elbow who was about to go up a staircase. "Could you tell me where the nearest canteen is?"

The orderly, a severe-looking dark complexioned man in a white cap, barely looked up from the cup of steaming coffee he was trying to cram a lid on. "Upstairs."

"Oh! Thank you very much, sir."

The man nodded and continued up the stairs. Lee followed him up onto the second floor, which was littered with tiny metal tables and chairs, the people occupying them looking either bored, sick, physically impaired in some way or another, or all three at once. Lee felt like breaking his leg against the wall and joining them. Chouji wasn't here either.

But then, almost like a sign from above, the sunlight glinted on the glass doors as someone pushed out onto the open air balcony and Lee saw his friend standing outside. He was leaning against the rails, ginger head bowed, with a cigarette in his hand. There was an ashtray on the table beside him, a little mountain of cigarette butts. There was no food to be seen.

Lee gaped. _I CHASED HIM ALL OVER THE HOSPITAL SO HE COULD GO OUT THERE AND HAVE A SNEAKY SMOKE?_

"Chouji!" he shouted, shoving the door open hard. "Have you been standing out here all this time? And why are you _smoking-_?"

There was a horrible 'THWACK' sound followed by a splash and a yell. Lee whipped his head round so fast he got a crick in his neck. A boy had been standing near the door and he was now holding his arm close to his chest, his face twisted in pain. The orderly Lee had spoken to earlier was standing beside the boy, his white coat and face splattered with steaming hot brown liquid. The boy's empty coffee cup rolled across the ground. The door slid quietly shut behind them.

For a few horrible, tense moments, there was complete silence. And then voices exploded all at once like a box of firecrackers.

"OH MY GOD!" Lee shrieked. His hands flew up to his horrified face. "I AM SO SORRY!"

"LEE!" screamed Chouji. "LEE, I CAN'T BE A FATHER!"

"Be careful, for God's sake!" the orderly barked, wiping his face with his sleeve. Lee prayed the coffee hadn't been _too_ hot. "This is a hospital! You can't go around kicking doors open! Be mindful of the other patients!"

"I know, I know, I'm so sorry – oh my god, are you hurt?"

The boy had cold, pale green eyes. Something about him made the hairs go up on the back of Lee's neck. "I guess you must be as stupid as you look, of course I'm–"

"LEE!" Suddenly Chouji was hanging off one of his arms, tears streaming down his face. Lee nearly buckled under the sudden addition of his weight. "I HAVE A SON! I HAVE A LITTLE BOY! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO? LEE, YOU HAVE TO HELP ME!"

"Chouji," Lee gasped. "Why are you so upset? Your son is beautiful and healthy! What's going on?"

Too many things were happening at once. Everyone on the balcony was staring at them. The boy pulled his arm away from his chest, still grimacing. Something on the dark fabric of his sleeve made the orderly swear. "You'll have to go back up to the ward."

Oh _shit_! Did he just hurt a sick person? Oh god, could this get any _worse_?

Apparently it could. Through tears Chouji blubbered, "D-do you think Ino would under-understand? If I told her I wasn't re-ready?"

What. The. _Hell_.

"OF COURSE SHE WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND!" Lee yelled. WHAT THE HELL'S THE MATTER WITH YOU? SHE JUST GAVE BIRTH TO YOUR SON!" He sucked in a long breath and quickly changed tactics, "Chouji. Listen to me, I know this is a big change but you can't back out now! Ino and the baby need you! We all love you and we're all here for you–!"

Chouji planted his face on his shoulder and wailed into it, giving Lee the perfect opportunity to give his full attention to the boy and his orderly. But they were both turning away, heading back inside, the orderly holding the boy's arm gingerly.

"Wait, oh, wait – I'm so sorry about the door! And your arm! And your coffee – oh, uh, I'll buy you a new one!"

The only response was the door closing resolutely behind them. Lee swore. He steadied Chouji on his two feet and said, very quickly, "Right, Chouji. This is it. You're a dad. You have to accept that. Go splash water on your face. Go down to the florists and buy Ino a big bunch of her favourite flowers. Go back to her. Tell her you love her. Tell her you're sorry you've been away. Tell her you got lost in the hospital. Tell her you'll look after your little boy while she rests. Then you GROW UP and be THE BEST DAD THAT YOU CAN POSSIBLY BE. OK, you get all of that?"

Chouji wiped his nose on his sleeve. "Yeah."

"Good, OK, we love you. Here, I have to go after that kid–"

He burst through the doors and looked around wildly. There was no sign of either of them but plenty of people in the canteen who had been watching through the windows were giving him the stinky eyes.

"You need to watch where you're going, boy, or you'll seriously injure someone!" a woman with a book in a wheelchair tsked. She gestured to her own leg, which was bandaged up from toe to thigh.

"Yes, I know," he told her. "I honestly think that's the worst thing I've ever done. Did you see which way they went? I want to replace his coffee."

She sighed and turned a page in her book. "They went down that corridor there."

"Thank you."

He bought another coffee and headed down the passage into the discharge lounge. He didn't have to wait too long. The orderly came out of a staff room, buttoning up a new white coat. When he saw Lee, he frowned.

"I think it's best if you just leave," he told him.

"I'm horrified by my behaviour," Lee said. "I really am. Please, at least give this to him for me."

He held out the coffee. The orderly shook his head. He was affixing the name-tag 'Baki' to the breast of his coat. "He's in with the nurse right now, no hot drinks allowed. He'll only be about ten minutes if you want to wait." Baki's mouth turned up into a smirk. "He's not exactly the most gracious kid you'll ever meet though."

He didn't need to tell Lee twice. Lee had the one to bear the full brunt of the boy's cold, judgemental stare. "I'd feel terrible if I didn't try to make it up to him somehow, Sir."

Baki sighed and waved a hand dismissively. "Take a seat."

Lee set the coffee on the small table beside him and twisted his hands together between his knees. He wasn't a big fan of hospitals. Over on the maternity ward, it had been decorated and staffed in a way to make new and expecting mothers as comfortable as possible. Here, the white coats, faded carpet and tattered magazines reminded him of when he broke his left arm and leg in three places as a child, tripping over a low wall onto the beach. He had had to stay several days on a ward as miserable as this one.

A bored relative was flicking through the channels on a television. A young woman was staring down at her phone, but he sensed her looking over at him every so often. Her eyes lingered on his green cords, his matching jumper; the heavy belt buckle that had Master Guy had given him, his bobbed hair, his eyebrows. When she noticed she had been caught, she quickly dropped her gaze back to her phone.

Lee knew he was a strange looking specimen but he stopped caring years ago. Not since he met Master Guy, whom he subconsciously began modelling himself after. Appearances were low on his list of what standards he judged people by.

A young man crossed in front of him that very second. Lee glanced at him disinterestedly, and then did a double take.

The man wore black head to toe. Literally head to toe – black boots, black jeans, a black hooded top with a strange purple insignia on the back, and the hood of the top was styled very strangely – almost like cat ears. Under the hood, his face was painted with two vertical purple stripes over his eyes down to his chin, along with – Lee's eyes nearly bulged out of his head – _purple lipstick_! The fluorescent hospital lights glimmered on his face, announcing the presence of several piercings, at least two in each eyebrow and one in each nostril.

Lee and the girl with the phone exchanged identical ' _what the fuck?'_ looks.

Baki came out from behind the reception counter to greet him. "Not for a few more minutes, Kankuro. There were a few complications with his stitches."

This strange looking man called Kankuro shrugged. "That's alright, we're behind schedule anyway."

He took the seat directly in front of Lee, pulled out a small silver tin and a line of filters and began rolling a cigarette. He set the finished product on the seat beside him and started on a second.

He was on his third when he suddenly looked up at Lee and said, "You want one or something?"

Lee jumped. "Oh! Uh, no, no thank you–"

"Then put your eyeballs back in your head." He set his third cigarette neatly beside the other two and started on a fourth. Lee heard Baki cough over at the counter and it sounded more like he was trying to hastily disguise a laugh.

A door opened and the boy came out in a dark red jacket, handing some papers over the counter to Baki. He completely ignored Lee's presence and stopped behind Kankuro, who was obliviously preparing a fresh skin.

"Kankuro."

Kankuro jumped in his seat, the little silver tin falling off his knee and scattering tobacco over the floor. "Fuck, Gaara! Don't sneak up behind me!"

The boy, Gaara, didn't smile. "Where's Temari?"

"She's visiting her boyfriend on the maternity ward."

Lee thought this was a very strange sentence but it seemed to make sense to Gaara because he rolled his eyes and he said, "Call her. I want to go now."

"Yeah, just let me..." Kankuro gestured to his fallen tobacco.

Gaara gave him a look. "Call her _now_. You can pick up your shit while we're waiting."

Lee's mouth fell open. Kankuro raised his hands and spread his fingers. He wore black fingerless gloves too and his nails were painted purple. "Alright, you got it." He fished his phone out of his jeans pocket and walked down the corridor with it pressed to his ear.

Only then did Gaara look at Lee. He quickly got to his feet and held out the cup of coffee.

"I brought you this as a way of apologising for earlier."

Gaara didn't move. His eyes, like the girl before, surveyed Lee from head to toe. Lee grew tense as the silence stretched on and on and the impassive look on Gaara's face made way for a sneer. Honestly, Lee didn't really think Gaara had any right to ridicule his appearance. The boy was wearing clothes far too big for him, his eyes were bloodshot and ringed with dark circles, he had no freaking eyebrows and he had the kanji for 'love' poorly tattooed on the left side of his forehead. His skin was otherwise ridiculously pale and combined with his head of blood-red hair; he looked just as bizarre as Kankuro, let alone as bizarre as Lee.

...Why the hell did he have 'love' _tattooed on his head_?

Finally, Gaara reached up and took the cup of coffee from him... and promptly dumped it in the bin.

Lee felt like his jaw was going to permanently unhinge. _WHAT THE HELL!_

"I was trying to be nice."

"You apologised already, I'm not deaf," said Gaara. "Besides, that coffee was going cold."

Lee wanted to sink into the floor and be done with life. Of _course_ the coffee was going to be cold – it had been sitting for at least fifteen minutes.

"Oh God, I'm sorry. That was stupid of me. Hold on..."

He pulled a fistful of coins from his pocket and shoved an appropriate handful into the vending machine. As it chugged and spat out what looked like a very strong black coffee into a little paper cup, Lee tried to ignore the other boy's penetrative stare. He pushed the button for milk. Nothing happened.

"Uh, the machine's out of milk," he said, handing the steaming black cup to him. "Wait! It'll be too–!"

Gaara knocked back the beverage and dropped the cup in the bin.

"...hot," Lee finished, watching him worriedly. Gaara didn't give any indication of having swallowed a cup of scalding hot liquid and turned to Kankuro as the other man came down the corridor, sliding his phone back into his pocket.

"OK, she's going to meet us at the truck," he announced. "Let me grab this."

He bent down and scooped all the tobacco up into his hand.

"Righty right," he said, tipping it into his little silver tin. "You ready?"

They had a weird relationship, whatever it was, thought Lee, as Gaara simply turned and started down the corridor towards the exit without a single word. Without even a 'goodbye' or a 'thank you for the coffee, I forgive you for hitting me with a door'. Kankuro popped one of his cigarettes between his purple painted lips and strolled up the corridor behind him. Lee felt a prickling of irritation. What, was he just supposed to be ignored like yesterday's tattered newspaper?

"I hope your arm gets better soon," he called after them, with a tiny hint of sarcasm.

Gaara continued to ignore him but Kankuro looked back in surprise. When they were both gone, Lee shook his head. What a weird, _weird_ pair. He noticed Baki watching him and nodded politely, turning away from the whole mess of the last hour and back to Ino and Chouji.

Baki's eyes followed him all the way out of the ward. God, they all gave him the creeps. He remembered getting goose-bumps when he first heard Gaara speak on the balcony, in a voice that was older than he looked. He wondered what age he was. Of course, he looked so underfed that he could've been thirty for all Lee knew. It was no wonder he was in getting stitched up – a paper-cut would probably slice him in two.

Lee was so wrapped in his inner ramblings that he nearly collided with a young woman wearing far too much fishnet to be appropriate in a hospital. She called him an asshole, flipped the bird and sauntered past. Lee watched her go, astounded. Had _all_ the insufferably rude pricks in existence come to this hospital today? Something about her was slightly familiar though. He eyed the blonde pigtails and the ridiculously short mini-skirt, but couldn't put his finger on it.

"Get lost?" Tenten smiled as he slipped back into Ino's room.

"This hospital is Hell," he muttered.

The room was quiet. Ino was propped up against her pillows, smiling drowsily at Chouji who was lightly bouncing their son up and down in his arms. When he met Lee's eye, his face was abashed, but Lee just gave him the thumbs up. There was no point in shaming his friend for being afraid of what the future held for him – Lee would probably feel the exact same in his position. He _was_ actually, and he didn't have a newborn to worry about at the same time.

They left the new parents and their baby to get a bit of rest and went down to the canteen again for refreshments. Chouji's best friend Nara Shikamaru had finally shown up and was emptying several sachets of sugar into his mug of tea. Tenten wrinkled her nose and bought a tin of Diet Coke. Lee became aware of a head leaning against his bicep – one with glossy pink hair and a snuffling nose.

"Are you alright, Sakura?"

"Yes." She wiped the corners of her eyes and her fingers came away wet. "I'm just... I don't know. I'm so _happy_ for them. And at the same time, it's scary to think that this is like the beginning of the end."

"The end of what?"

" _This_ ," she said, gesturing tiredly with one hand. "All of the school gang together."

"Don't think of it like that," said Lee.

But it was true, and the same thought had crossed his mind many a time. They were eighteen, nineteen years old. He had thought they might have another ten years as a friend group, free from the responsibilities of adulthood. But it had caught up with them far quicker than he expected. First was Ino's pregnancy. Second was Neji's arranged marriage to his cousin Hinata. They all knew what would happen now. Ino and Chouji would put their baby first and their time spent with the group drastically reduced. Neji barely bothered to show his face anymore, too entwined with so called 'family duties' and too irked by everyone's (Tenten's) preoccupation with his personal life.

It was an abysmally selfish thing to get upset over. And yet they were doing it anyway.

"Did your girlfriend go home?" Tenten asked.

Shikamaru took a sip of his sugary beverage and nodded. "Yeah, she had to meet up with her brothers."

"She's pretty," said Sakura, and then as an afterthought, "In her own way."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That she's pretty," repeated Sakura. "But she's definitely unique."

"People use the word 'unique' when they can't think of anything positive to say," said Shikamaru dryly.

"Does she work in a strip club during the day?" asked Tenten slyly. "Or does she just not own a mirror?"

Lee hadn't met Shikamaru's girlfriend but thought this was a very rude thing for Tenten to say, regardless of how she dressed. He told her so.

"Ah, but you didn't see her, Lee," said Tenten. "I think she gave the midwife a heart attack."

"The midwife has definitely seen far worse in her line of work than Tem in a miniskirt," said Shikamaru, his voice as bored as ever. He didn't seem to be remotely offended on his girlfriend's behalf. He did however add, "Do us a favour and go get yourself laid. It sounds like you need it."

Tenten spluttered indignantly. Sakura let out a breathy laugh and returned her head to its previous position on Lee's arm.

They sat together in silence, sipping their drinks, and Lee felt Sakura's fears resonate in him tenfold. He didn't want this to end either.

* * *

To be continued.


End file.
